Vehicle body rear structures include a rear outer wall raised upward from a rear end of a rear floor panel forming a floor of a vehicle body such that the rear outer wall defines a rear part of a trunk room (cabin). The rear outer wall has a hollow closed section formed by and between a rear panel outer member and a rear panel inner member raised from the rear end of the rear floor panel (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
However, since the hollow closed section formed by the rear panel outer member and the rear panel inner member of the rear outer wall shown in Patent Document 1 is relatively large, the rear outer wall can hardly secure sufficient rigidity and strength and is likely to undergo collapsing deformation when subjected to a load. It is, therefore, necessary to devise an appropriate means of protecting the rear outer wall against undergoing collapsing deformation.
In the vehicle body rear structure, the rear girder is connected to a lateral outer end of the rear outer wall and also connected to a roof side rail. By thus connecting the rear girder to the lateral outer end of the rear outer wall, an upper part of the rear outer wall and the rear girder jointly form part of a rear opening of the cabin. With this arrangement, the rear outer wall having a relatively large hollow closed section is hardly possible to perform proper load transmission between itself and the rear girder. An appropriate means of transmitting a load between the rear outer wall and the rear girder is also required.
As a measure to prevent a collapsing deformation of the rear outer wall while securing appropriate load transmission between the rear outer wall and the rear girder, it may be considered that a bulkhead is disposed inside the rear outer wall so as to partition a closed section of the rear outer wall. By thus partitioning the closed section of the rear outer wall, necessary rigidity and strength of the rear outer wall can be maintained. However, the bulkhead disposed inside the rear outer wall brings about an increase in the number of structural components and renders the rear outer wall complicated in construction.